Apparatus for positioning and supporting optical laboratory instruments

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for positioning and supporting apparatus, particularly for optical instruments in a laboratory, constituted on the one hand by a support rail and on the other hand by a clamp mounted to slide on said rail, the rail being constituted by a linear circular-sectioned tubular structure, the tubular section having four diametrically opposite radial fins projecting therefrom, the clamp is adapted to be positioned on two adjacent fins, the clamp comprising two side branches, one of which receives an adjustable locking member abutling an outer face of a fin.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A device for supporting and positioning relatively movable instruments such as optical apparatus used in laboratories, said device comprising: a rail constituted by a linear tubular structure and comprising at least three radial fins projecting from said tubular structure, the ends of said fins being equidistant from one another;   a plurality of clamps, each clamp being constituted by a plate comprising a flat outer face adapted to fixedly receive said instruments, and an inner face slidably mounted on any two adjacent fins of said rail, the inner face of each clamp comprising a first side branch forming a groove whose section is substantially complementary to the section of a fin and receiving one of the two adjacent fins and, on the opposite side, a second side branch supporting a locking member having a surface adapted to abut in locking position the second fin, said groove and said locking member being situated at a distance from each other corresponding to the distance separating any two adjacent fins, thus permitting any clamp slidably to be mounted on any two of the radial fins.   
     
     
       2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said rail is constituted by a circular sectioned tubular structure comprising four radial fins integral with the wall of the tubular structure and disposed in two perpendicular planes, the ends in section of the fins corresponding to the angles of a theoretical square, and said ends terminating in two faces situated along the dihedral of a theoretical parallelepiped of square section, any two adjacent fins thus forming a support for a clamp resting on the two faces situated in a same plane and belonging to said two adjacent fins, the rail being so adapted to receive clamps on four sides. 
     
     
       3. A support device according to claim 1, wherein said locking member is constituted by a U-shaped member astride the second side branch, one arm of the U-shaped member which comes in contact with the second fin comprising a bevelled face parallel to the plane of the outer side edge of the fin terminated by a knurled knob and being mounted idly on said two arms of the U-shaped locking member and passing through a threaded hole in said second side branch, the rotation of said screw, controlled by the knurled knob, thus controlling the forward or backward movement of the member with respect to the supporting second side branch. 
     
     
       4. A support device according to claim 3, wherein the thickness of the first side branch of the clamp is less than the thickness of the clamp plate, thus allowing the rail to be placed on clamps resting on a plane and used as support for said rail whereas the two lower fins of the rail are spaced from said plane by a distance sufficient to permit said fins to be engaged in the first groove of lateral clamps vertically disposed on two lateral fins of the rail.